Workforce Blog: An ASME-Bolstered Engineering Journey

Sometimes I wonder how anyone becomes a mechanical engineer. For many of us, engineering is like a triathlon: You need to train, prepare, and develop, both mentally and physically.

Now imagine starting a triathlon without access to a stellar training team or tools. Most likely, you would never finish. This is the unfortunate reality for so many students from underrepresented communities or developing nations.

But ASME bridges that gap with programs and support that help engineering students reach the finish line and continue onward from there.

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, to a middle-class family, I was taught that success can only happen through hard work, dedication, commitment, sacrifice, hope, and faith. With parents who are both engineers (industrial and civil) and an extended family of professionals, providing a good education for me was their utmost priority.

Like kids everywhere, I loved playing with LEGOs growing up, eventually building elaborate structures that needed to have value, purpose, and function—the seeds of an engineering mindset. In high school, I had a physics teacher who showed me how the principles of thermodynamics were present in many of the products we use every day.

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My engineering journey continued at Universidad del Norte. As a recent high school graduate, navigating college life was not always easy, at points overwhelming and somewhat bewildering. That changed when, in 2020, I helped relaunch the first ASME student section at the university with a dozen members. Practically overnight I had a cohort of like-minded friends, all on a similar path. In ASME and each other, we found support, encouragement, and companionship. The following year I was elected president of the student section and membership had grown to 40 members.

We launched the first EFx in Colombia —a local version of ASME’s E-Fest where students participate in expert lectures, design competitions, and networking opportunities.

Our section interacted with students and early-career engineers in 17 countries and had networking events with ASME chapters in Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Lebanon, and at schools throughout the United States. At E-Fest Digital Careers in 2021 and 2022, our fledgling section won top honors in two different global competitions.

Before my junior year, my affiliation with ASME paid off yet again when I was accepted into a transfer program between my university and the University of South Florida. I relocated to Florida and immediately confronted the challenge of paying tuition—with the currency exchange, even the in-state rate I qualified for was a struggle. This is where ASME’s support was a game-changer. I applied for and won the ASME Foundation Ansys, Inc. Scholarship—the first student from Colombia to receive one. The scholarship covered more than 70 percent of tuition, significantly relieving the burden on me and my family.

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Shortly before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, I became an ambassador to the ASME Student Leadership Training Conference, where more than 1,000 ASME leaders from around the world gather to work on global challenges, build professional networks, and played a key role in shaping the future of ASME.

After graduation, I joined Cummins in Columbus, Ind., as a product engineer supporting its aftermarket business, working cross-functionally with quality, manufacturing, purchasing, and sourcing, to guarantee that the supply chain for customers is not interrupted.

It’s impossible to overstate the valuable role ASME and the ASME Foundation play in empowering next-generation engineers. The resources ASME provides—not just scholarships but also leadership training, professional networking, volunteer opportunities, and most of all the people you meet—are available nowhere else. They are the boost that students and early career engineers should pursue on the path to achieving a more fulfilling engineering career.

Juan David Visbal Alcalá is a product engineer at Cummins, Inc., in the New and Recon Parts business, and former student section president at Colombia’s Universidad del Norte.

For more information about the ASME Foundation’s scholarship, early-career engineering, and workforce development programs, visit www.asmefoundation.org.